Norah Jones or Sex Pistols? Thinking style molds taste: study

LONDON (Reuters) - If you like the mellow sounds of jazz singer Norah Jones, you could well be what a new study calls “an empathizer” who responds to the emotions of others.

Norah Jones performs the song "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from the film "Ted" at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 24, 2013. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

If, on the other hand, you go for the Sex Pistols, the same study says you could be a “systemizer” who likes to analyze rules and patterns in the world.

The study, published on Wednesday in the contributory research journal PLOS ONE, was conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge in England, led by PhD student David Greenberg from the Department of Psychology.

“Although people’s music choices fluctuate over time, we’ve discovered a person’s empathy levels and thinking style predicts what kind of music they like,” Greenberg said in a press release.

“In fact, their cognitive style - whether they’re strong on empathy or strong on systems - can be a better predictor of what music they like than their personality.”

The study was based on a sample of 4,000 Facebook users who were asked to respond to psychology-based questionnaires, and whose musical tastes were matched up with their cognitive style as determined by their responses.